Earliest television set memories.....

[Stewart]

I was born in '66 and can still picture the rotten 405 set my parents rented until I was five. I don't know what it was but it was certainly suffering with poor contacts - a large paperweight was kept on top to give it a judicious whack at regular intervals.

Then in November '71 I remember mum walking me home from school (that dates it - these days I'd be pushed in the back of an MPV) and telling me that there was a treat waiting when I got home - a new colour TV. I remember already knowing that Humpty off Play School was green - I'd seen it on a friends set down the road on some huge set with the speaker under the screen (Baird 700?).

The G8 that greeted me back home looked much more modern and for a while we watched everything and anything - as long as it was in colour it didn't matter. (This was a family that had set chairs out in the kitchen and spent an evening or two watching the new Hoover Keymatic washing machine dad had splashed out on when I was born). The Philips TV gave a great picture (or so it seemed at the time) and thankfully my parents set the controls quite conservatively - many people seemed to overdo the colour in the early days.

It wasn't the most reliable of sets and I recall a good few service visits from Derwent - the rental company. I can remember the amazment during one visit when the engineer popped out a piece of trim, undid a screw, and pulled off the speaker grille to reveal more controls and presets than I'd had hot dinners. That screw was never tightened again over the next 13 years - and I spent many happy hours in my youth destroying the convergence and trying to get it back again. Sometimes I did - but not always . I remember the panic this used to cause my parents in case the rental company had to be called in and would know someone had been having a good old fiddle.

That was nothing to the desperation reached when I really did do some damage: I found that a magnet helpfully prized off an old loudspeaker by my dad, if wafted near the TV, would create all sorts of pretty patterns - which would remain until next time you turned the TV on. One day I went too far though and held the magnet right up to the screen. The display went haywire - and remained so the next day - and the day after that. The engineer was duly called and I can still see him waving this thing in the air in a vain attempt to de-gauss it. He failed and I watched in awe as a new tube was fitted. He never questioned why the tube had become so magnetised even though I nearly gave the game away by offering to help set up the convergence. He spent ages talking through how to set it all up properly and - if you were that Derwent engineer - thanks.

In '84 I decided that we needed a new TV - we didn't, the G8 still gave a great picture - but it seemed dated I guess. When my parents were out I created a few picture faults - detroying the grey scale focus etc. I told my parents that it was beyond me and they'd have to get the company in. When the enginner arrived he took one brief look and said it had had it and they didn't maintain these old sets anymore - would we like to rent a new model. Dad said yes until he found the charges would be somewhat higher. They'd taken our lovely set back to the depot - could we have it back? It seemed it was long gone but they could find us another old set and we could continue renting at the old rate. A later G8 - with the electrotouch channel buttons was delivered. It was a total wreck - with a flat tube and tatty cabinet. My masterplan had backfired horribly. In '85 Dad gave in and rented a nice new Philips K35. Stunning picture - especially after the previous set. Then after about 6 months or so I started a new job and my colleague was ex Philips. He convinced us to buy a set rather than rent one - and he duly got us a new set from the Philips staff shop. That 2A model continues in daily use at my parents home - and would give most sets you see in Dixons and Currys a good run for their money in the picture quality stakes.

[paolo]

I was also born in 66 and we had a couple of tellies that I can recall. The first was a monstrous Sobell I think. 26 inch screen in a fairly small room. Even in my very young years I remember thinking that it couldn't be too good for me. Then we had a dual standard Ferguson. It had a rotary dial for the VHF channels and four piano keys on the top right of the set for UHF. I remember that the set was always being repaired because of those keys. Would love to see a photo of that model again, but highly unlikely.

In Christmas of 73 I got a Bush portable TV. UHF only, it made for miserable viewing from the Pontop Pike transmitter as we lived on the wrong side of a valley. Consequently shadows, ghosting and generally crap vision were all I ever got until the arrival of the Shotley Field relay.

Colour came to our household relatively late, 1975. My parents bought a 19" National Panasonic set in a sturdy wooden case and a "magic eye" tuning or somesuch. When turned on, a vertical green band appeared that narrowed when tuned into a station correctly. Damn good set too - it survived
up until about 1995 when the tube finally said "enough".

Ahhh. memories

[Dave Moll]

I have dim memories from my childhood of a Regentone TR20 (1950) which I met on visits to my grandparents, though I can't remember whether I ever saw it working.

Amazingly, this set remained in my grandparents' house long after it ceased to work, and long after 405 lines ended. I discovered on my father's death in 1999 that it had been left to him in my grandfather's will, but had remained in my grandparents' house (still in the family).

At this point I acquired the set and am currently attempting to get it working, largely thanks to sessions at Gerry Wells' workshops.

[Andrew_Keith]

My earliest memory was a Bush set in a large square cabinet that we had until i was about four. My parents used to rent it from a company called Wigfalls. I remember that it had a fault in that if the mains plug was ever pulled out of the socket (it was one of those KLIX two pin plugs) the set wouldnt come back on and we had to call out the engineer. Still cant think what the fault could have been In about 1968 i remember coming home from school to find a brand new PYE OLYMPIC duel standard sitting in the corner. I believe from looking on Mickeys t.v site that it was a 67s hybrid chassis. It proved very reliable though, apart from having to adjust the line and frame hold every time we changed channel. We had this right through till about 1976 when it developed a heater cathode short in the tube, and we were told it was better off scrapped. Next came a PHILIPS 210 single standard set which we had untill 1982, i cant remember this set ever breaking down in the years we had it. The only reason we got rid was to get a brand new PYE colour set, not sure of the model K30?. It was the one i think after the G11 chassis. It had a swing down chassis with lots of plug in modules off the main board. We had this up until about 1992, and again it never failed once. At some time in the mid 60s we had for a short time an ULTRA BERMUDA B/W set, this was forever breaking down, and i am sure the neighbours thought my mum was having a thing with the repairman As his van was always parked outside our house.